The Divorce Colony

 Book 103 of my 2023 Reading Challenge

read from October 25 - November 4

The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom in the American Frontier

by April White

Summary (via the book jacket)

For a woman traveling without her husband at the turn of the twentieth century, there was only one reason to take the train all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On the American frontier, the new state's laws offered a tempting freedom often difficult to obtain elsewhere: divorce.

With the laxest divorce laws in the country, five railroad lines, and the finest hotel for hundreds of miles, the small city became the unexpected headquarters for society divorcees. Within this infamous "divorce colony", an unlucky few - a niece of the influential Astor family; a beloved society author; the daughter-in-law of a prominent Republican politician; and the wife of a suspected murderer - became celebrities, known both at home and abroad for their failed marriages. These women and their fellow divorce colonists put Sioux Falls at the center of a heated debate over the future of American marriage. As clashes mounted in the country's gossip columns, church halls, courtrooms, and even the White House, the divorce seekers faced a fight they didn't go looking for, a fight that was the only path to their freedom. 

My Opinion

3 stars

I don't really have much to say.  I liked the main focus on individual women seeking divorce for varying reasons set against the backdrop of the social landscape.  I'm also amazed at how quickly gossip and information carried from Sioux Falls to New York given the limitations on travel and communication.

We also use Sioux Falls as our lunch/leg stretching point every time we travel west from Iowa so that added a little familiarity as well.  It's a very pretty area.